His Girl Friday Reviews

• Get the "Cary Grant on Film" version! D3K gets 0 stars!

  
  By A2JDN1I0026AX6 on 2000-04-15
  This is one on my favorite movies of all time. The dialog is fast, funny and SMART. Plus, the gender treatment is fascinating, and not dated in the slightest. But . . . WARNING! Avoid the D3K DVD at all costs. It is truly the most horrendous digital transfer I have ever encountered. The picture is fuzzy and the dialogue almost incomprehensible. I have a five-year-old VHS copy of a TV broadcast of the movie that has much better sound/picture quality. To make things worse, the feature menus on the DVD are poorly designed, so that you cannot tell what you are selecting. And the makers had the audacity to have a whole menu with the credits for production of the DVD. I can't believe how mad I got trying to use this DVD.

  Luckily my friend had another version I could compare (and eventually buy). The "His Girl Friday/Cary Grant on Film" version is superb in comparison: Dialog is crisp, picture sharp. It has a bonus documentary, Tony Curtis introduction and the trailer. And IT COSTS LESS than the D3K. This version is a winner.
  
  

• Technical/quality issues

  
  By A1GTOIX13PLVL6 on 1999-12-10
  I'm sure you know that this classic movie is great. The DVD itself, on the other hand, is not what I've come to expect regarding restoration and remastering and whatnot. Bottom line is, the quality was as bad as the "bargain bin" VHS tapes of old movies that I quickly learned to avoid. In particular the sound was badly degraded, with a hiss that made it difficult to understand the dialog towards the beginning (that improved somewhat, but it was still bad). That's particularly annoying because I could clean it up better than that myself, with a trivial application of "Cool Edit" shareware! Clearly, this is a direct scan of poor quality original and zero work went into presenting it. The picture, too, is full of flickering spots and the whole thing has a soft out-of-focus look to it. If you just have to have this film in your collection, be resigned to the poor quality. If you're just looking, ask yourself if it's cheap enough for the lousy job.
  
  

• Unbearable Image and Sound Quality

  
  By A2ZMXLQCL1XG1K on 2000-01-06
  Avoid this product at all costs. This great movie is ruined on this disc. The image quality is awful and continuously blurred. The sound quality is equally fuzzy. It's like watching a movie with your head wrapped in cheese cloth.

  Amazon should stop selling this disc on the grounds of defective merchandise.
  
  

• Shamefully Poor Quality Ruins Great Movie

  
  By A2GR77QCSCF3ZE on 1999-12-22
  A long-time favorite movie of mine, "His Girl Friday" is overdue for a thorough restoration. With its release on DVD, I hoped I'd see Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell looking crisp and sharp and hear their crackling dialogue with new clarity. Alas! This DVD appears to be a pirated copy made from a defective video tape. I was unable to tolerate more than five minutes of the fuzzy, ghostly spectres that flickered across the screen or the hisses and burbles that issued from the apparitions in place of dialogue. I seriously question the honesty of the manufacturer. An outrage.

  TedReinert@nyc.rr.com
  
  

• TERRIFIC MOVIE, LOUSY TRANSFER TO DVD!

  
  By AF2CPN34MDVBK on 2000-01-26
  DON'T BUY THE DVD! I was given this as a gift and I was astonished at just how bad the quality of this DVD is! The sound is awful for the most part and visually it's gauzey and fuzzy; I literally could not believe that the VHS version could be so much superior! If you haven't seen this movie, you MUST (on the VHS)- it's a terrific , rollicking classic which is quickly paced with realistically overlapping dialogue and unbelievably great performances (one could say that this film is a lesson in screen acting!) Rosalind Russell is BEYOND great and Cary Grant is a MARVEL. Once you begin watching, you won't take your eyes off this unique, unforgettable film.
  
  
• Thanks to the other amazon reviewers ...
  By A3UHUNXG6NNQPR on 2001-04-29
  for warning me about which version to get. I bought the columbia classics version which was digitally remastered. The picture and sound quality are both excellent. There are a couple of versions out there. Luckily, I read the reviews here and didn't get duped into buying the cheap poor quality dvd. The movie itself is my favorite comedy of all time next to Some Like It Hot. This was one of my favorite roles by Cary Grant. The chemistry with Rosalind Russell was very smooth and Ralph Bellamy played his part well as the stuffy insurance salesman...Remember GET THE COLUMBIA CLASSICS VERSION. It's an extra ten bucks but excellent quality.
  
  
• which version to buy? There's only one!
  By AUEYE7V7RYBD6 on 2000-07-20
  OK, we all know that 'His Girl Friday' (aka 'The Front Page') is a terrific movie which belongs in every DVD collection. But there are some really bad, almost unviewable versions out there. Fortunately, I chose the right version, and it's a clean crisp image, tightly-focused sound -- a joy throughout. So if you want 'His Girl Friday', make sure you get the Laserlight DVD version, complete with a Cary Grant biog documentary and an unvelievably hokey intro from Tony Curtis on a bad day. I got the Laserlight disc from Amazon for around $7 -- the really bad dubs other reviewers have complained about from other companies cost more! I've found Laserlight transfers of old films are generally ok -- their cheapie Hitchcock transfers of 'The Lady Vanishes' and 'The 39 Steps' are almost as good as as Criterion in image, though pretty scratchy in sound. For a budget label, they do a good job compared to the absolute garbage put out by Madacy and others. So remember -- 'His Girl Friday' has to be from Laserlight or you're wasting your money and buying something totally unviewable. And no, this is NOT a paid ad! Just trying to steer people towards a good edition of a classic comedy. If Laserlight wants to thank me, they could prepare a DVD edition of my favourite of all Billy Wilder comedies, 'The Major and the Minor' with Ginger Rogers and Ray Milland. Love those 1940s comedies!
  
  
• DO NOT PURCHASE THIS DVD VERSION!
  By on 1999-12-14
  You get what you pay for. This recording is worse than mediocre in terms of sound and picture quality.
  
  
• A Great Film (But A Warning For Possible Purchasers)
  By A2U7Z7RX0HVY7G on 2002-07-16
  July 16, 2002

  This is a great film, but my object here today isn't
  to write about how much smarter this film is than most
  contemporaray comedies, or to praise Howards Hawks,
  Rosalind Russel or Cary Grant, alas, but to warn anyone
  thinking of buying a DVD version of 'His Girl Friday' to

  AVOID AT ALL COSTS THE VERSION PUT OUT
  BY "HOLLYWOOD CLASSICS COLLECTION"
  (MADACY ENTERTAINMENT).

  It is an awful transfer, grainy, worn-out, and
  unprofessional. It probably gets a lot of nibbles by
  having a low price. Don't be fooled. Pay the extra
  ten bucks, or whatever, and get a responsible version
  of this knock-out comedy.
  
  

• Bad transfer ruins good movie
  By AKTLVOMCXXRPH on 2000-01-06
  This transfer suffers from the same problems reported by other Amazon shoppers for the D3K edition of "Charade". It seems like D3K masters their discs from broadcasts by Encore or AMC. Unless you've got to have it, wait for some else to do a better job or buy the VHS.
  
  
• brilliant film--dreadful DVD
  By AA4YZE8ZV7J5B on 2004-07-13
  Don't buy this DVD. The sound quality is terrible--a loud hissing noise overshadows the film's trademark fast, witty dialog. $5 seemed a small investment at the time, but I should have saved my money. Surely someday those who own the rights to "His Girl Friday" will release a DVD worthy of this wonderful classic.
  
  
• Wait For A Better Version
  By A2E8PKFTLVESZ on 2000-03-08
  "His Girl Friday" is one of my all-time favorite movies and I was looking forward to having a copy on DVD. I had read the reviews on here at Amazon about the D3K release and just figured people were exaggerating about the poor quality. I mean, it's DVD, it's gotta be great, right? Wrong. This version is awful. The sound is scratchy and the picture quality is worse than anything I've seen, even on VHS. As a matter of fact, my VHS copy is far superior. Even if you really love this movie, I suggest you wait until someone does a better job of restoring it. The only reason I give this DVD version one star is because it's still a wonderful movie.
  
  
• CONSUMER WARNING: Wonderful movie,TERRIBLE DVD version!
  By on 2003-10-23
  As noted by other viewers, this movie is fantastic - a true classic that holds up incredibly well over time. I am not writing about the film but about this particular DVD version by d3kfilms-- it is unwatchable, BOOTLEG quality, in my opinion. I had the misfortune of trying to rent this movie on DVD at my local video store, and this is the version they had in stock. It hadn't occured to me that a reputable video store would be stocking poor quality, unofficial versions of films, so I didn't at all expect what I saw when I watched this DVD. The image quality is EXTREMELY bad-- out of focus even when I put the sharpness levels up to maximum on my TV, and there are MAJOR scratches and jarring skips in the film. It was as if someone went to a revival theatre showing an extremely worn-out print of "His Girl Friday" and recorded the movie as it was playing on screen with their video camera, then burned what they recorded onto a DVD! That is how terrible the quality is, and this classic film deserves so much better. In fact, any film deserves better-- so watch out for DVDs that have this company's name (d3kfilms) on them or that do not have the original, legit studio's name on them. I noticed that amazon.com sells 2 other versions of this movie on DVD-- try those before wasting your money on this one. I'd even recommend buying an official VHS version of the movie over this one. I was so shocked by what I saw that I got a refund of my money from the video store and then felt compelled to go online and warn people about it-- and I've never done either thing before.
  
  
• Double Warning - Great Movie - Bad DVD
  By AG52XJX512NIP on 2004-02-21
  I read a review about the bad DVD quality of the version of HIS GIRL FRIDAY produced by D3K films. I made sure I bought a different DVD of the movie from a company called Alpha Video. This was also an incredibly bad rendition of this classic movie. The contrast of the movie was so poor that you could not see the faces of the actors. It was also poorly framed. DON'T BUY THIS VERSION EITHER!
  
  
• Columbia Classics version is the one to get
  By on 2000-12-27
  The Amazon practice of putting all reviews for all versions of a title under each version makes things confusing in the case of His Girl Friday. It is in the public domain so there have been several cheap and lousy copies-of-copies releases. The Columbia Classics version (released November 21, 2000) is the one to get...at last great picture and sound quality, by the original studio from the original film. The commentary by Todd McCarthy is good and the extras are fun, but the movie is the thing and 60 years later it's as fun as ever. What dazzling acting and dialogue. A classic.
  
  
• Outstanding Transfer from Columbia Tristar
  By A3ET9OE3TQ9OEJ on 2005-03-06
  "His Girl Friday" is Howard Hawk's inspired remake of the award-winning Broadway play and previous movie release of "The Front Page". In this revamp, it's all about a rapid fire newspaper editor, Walter (Cary Grant) and his star reporter and ex-wife, Hildie Johnston. Hildie has decided to retire to the country with her soon to be new husband (Ralph Belamy). But when a prison break captures the imagination of a troupe of cutthroat reporters, all rabid for the real scoop, Hildie sets aside marital bliss for one last hurrah as a cub reporter.

  THE TRANSFER: BEWARE OF THIS DVD! There are no less than 12 bootlegged versions of "His Girl Friday" being sold through various vendors on DVD. In all but one case the image quality looks as though the entire print had been fed through a meat grinder. The version you want is the one from Columbia Tri-Star Home Video. Its packaging features a disclaimer that reads "mastered from the original camera negative."

  This version of "His Girl Friday" exhibits - in short - exemplary video quality. The B&W picture has been completely restored. Age related artifacts are nonexistent. The gray scale, black and contrast levels are perfectly realized. Fine detail will astound. There are no digital anomalies. The audio is mono but very nicely cleaned up.

  EXTRAS: This version also includes some very nice - if all too brief - featurettes on the careers of stars Rosiland Russell and Cary Grant and the making of the film. There's also the original theatrical trailer.

  BOTTOM LINE: This girl is worth seeking out!
  
  

• Outstanding DVD, if you get the right one!!!!
  By A2O1JBNCXJGBM2 on 2000-11-22
  His Girl Friday is a hilarious movie, but because it has now been in the public domain for a few years, any ol' person or company could make a videotape or copy of it. This brand new DVD is immaculate in the transfer - Make sure though you're getting the DVD that has the "Columbia Classics" across the top - any other version is more than likely an old transfer with little care taken in the DVD mastering... This new DVD is the best the movie will probably ever look and is still a great film with some of the best bantering/overlapping dialogue and hilarious acting by Cary Grant you'll ever find....
  
  
• What a terrible DVD transfer!
  By A1CKLHQQG32AQ9 on 2000-04-08
  This is the worst quality DVD I have ever encountered. What ashame since it's one of the best comedies I've had the privilege tosee.

  Even if this DVD is offered to you for free, do not accept it. I literally could not watch this disc and ended up turning it off after the opening credits. END
  
  

• Great movie, poor DVD quality.
  By on 2000-02-07
  This is a wonderful movie but if one wants to buy it, get the VHS. The quality of the DVD is very bad! This is the first bad DVD I've encountered and will definitely be more careful next time before purchasing DVDs.
  
  
• Great Movie, Bad Transfer
  By A3LFE8YFDZKEWL on 2001-08-07
  Madacy obviously takes old worn-out video copies from rental and tries to pass them off as DVD copies of the movie. This is one of my all time favorites and I bought the DVD because I'd worn out the Tape. My tape has better quality. If you have a choice, buy the movie from any other DVD producer. This version of The Front Page has some of Grant and Russel's finest work and the overlapping dialog is something indeed! Do buy the movie, the studio has a version which I believe sells for less than $X. Spend the extra bucks and you won't be disappointed.
  
  
• Great Director and Stars at Their Very, Very Best
  By A16QODENBJVUI1 on 2001-12-01
  Of all the great directors in cinema history, Howard Hawks was easily the most versatile. Think of a great director. Any director. Think of the kinds of films they directed? No matter who you consider, at best they worked in two or three genres. but Hawks turned to every conceivable genre with his cinematic mastery intact. Had he worked in the 1970s or 1980s, he would probably have produced a great martial arts film. Hawks made great war films, comedies, Westerns, gangster films, detective films, adventure films, musicals, and is even acknowledged to be the uncredited creative force behind THE THING FROM OUTER SPACE, the film that started the Sci-fi craze of the fifties.

  But in my mind, Hawks was first and foremost a director of screwball comedies. He more or less invented the genre with his 1934 TWENTIETH CENTURY, and went on to direct BRINGING UP BABY, BALL OF FIRE, and lesser efforts like I WAS A MALE WAR BRIDE and MONKEY BUSINESS. But as much as I like TWENTIETH CENTURY and BRINGING UP BABY, my favorite Hawks comedy is easily HIS GIRL FRIDAY.

  This movie gets so many things right that it is difficult to begin isolating just a few of its excellencies. You almost have to begin with the utterly breathtaking verbal interchanges between Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell. The script is heavily based on the great Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur play THE FRONT PAGE. In becoming a comedy, many of the impressive social themes of the play become muted. Fortunately, some of the racism of the play also is muted, though not eliminated (an unfortunate joke about a black woman giving birth is retained in the Hawks script and film). But whatever is lost in seriousness is gained by in sheer comedic force and exuberance. Which leads us back to Grant and Russell's verbal exchanges. They are intense, quick, fast-paced, and almost manic. This film may contain more words per minute than any other Hollywood has produced. The pace is so rapid that in many spots the characters are intentionally tripping over the others' lines. Frequently two and even three characters are talking at once. But over and over again, the viewer is just stunned by the virtuosity of Grant and Russell. It is difficult to imagine better comedic acting than this.

  The cast is almost impossible to overpraise. All the way down to the top 15 or 20 characters, the casting is perfect. Although Grant and Russell stand out, this is really an ensemble cast. Ralph Bellamy is solid in his thankless but essential role as Rosalind Russell's fiancé.

  The movie also features some great in jokes. I'll mention only three. When Grant sends someone to give some (counterfeit) money to Bellamy's character, Grant is asked what he looks like. He hesitates for only a fraction of a second before answering, "He looks just like that movie fellow, Ralph Bellamy." At another point, a frustrated Cary Grant threatens someone by saying, "I'll do to you what I did to Archie Leech." Archie Leech, was, of course, Cary Grant's real name. When Earl Williams, who is hiding in a roll top desk, attempts to get out, Grant says, "Get back in there, you old Mock Turtle." Near the beginning of his career, Grant had played the part of the Mock Turtle (in heavy make up but singing his own song--most people are not aware that Grant had a pleasant light tenor and was quite at ease in musical comedy).

  Just a great comedy. I would, however, like to caution people with the other reviewers to get only the Columbia version of the film. This movie was in public domain for some time, and during that time a large number of execrable versions were produced. Purchase this one, but purchase it with caution.
  
  

• Witty and entertaining
  By A2I17T9XB6LSGW on 2002-02-20
  (Please note that the DVD version I am reviewing is the Laserlight release that features an additional documentary on the life of Cary Grant as well as an introduction by an even-more-confused-than-usual Tony Curtis.)

  With Laserlight you can never predict from the outside case exactly what the quality of the film itself is going to be in. I've watched good quality prints from them in the past, but I've also seen some truly awful releases that aren't worth the plastic that they're pressed on. Fortunately, their version of HIS GIRL FRIDAY is quite excellent, with a crisp picture and a clear soundtrack. Their budget releases are usually worth the risk, and in this case, you end up with a great movie that's quite well preserved and all for a fairly low price.

  The movie itself is simply fantastic. The dialogue comes flying at you so fast that'll be afraid to laugh for fear of speaking over the next line. The story itself is also intensely funny, and deceptively dark. What begins as a seemingly light romantic comedy slowly becomes more and more twisted until the final scene, where the reinstatement of the romance subplot reminds us of how far we've come. It's a testament to the skills of the director, Howard Hawks, that the result is not only coherent, but also highly enjoyable. The story flows effortlessly from moment to moment, with each scene being slightly more frantic than the last, yet still together enough to be extremely entertaining.

  The acting from the two main leads is also a delight. In the past I had thought of Cary Grant as always playing the same sort of character in every film. Although, you'll see some similarity to other roles that he played, he's incredibly amusing in this film and playing a far more manipulative character than I'd seen him perform. It's a nice change to see the usually easily befuddled Cary Grant actually running rings around the rest of the cast.

  As for the DVD extras, they don't distract from the feature, but they won't be the deciding factor in whether you purchase this DVD or not. The included documentary, CARY GRANT ON FILM: A BIOGRAPHY runs about 28 minutes long and consists mainly of random trailers that span Grant's entire film career. It's fairly interesting, although not terribly riveting. The introductory remarks by Tony Curtis are as bizarrely entertaining as always. The film contains Spanish, Japanese and Chinese subtitles, but does not include an option for English, which is a slightly annoying oversight.

  In the end, it's not the extras that you should be buying this disc for; it's the wonderful film that's packaged with them. Kick back, relax, and watch the dialog fly across the screen. You'll want to keep the remote control handy so that you can rewind to catch all the great moments that you missed while laughing over them.
  
  

• Breathless take on old-style Chicago news hounds with Grant, Russell and Bellamy
  By A3VLAZEPO9UJEA on 2007-02-16
  This is the 95th review to appear here at Amazon on this movie. As always, it has proved enlightening to read the preceding writers had to say. Most of them loved the film, as was wholly predictable. A goodly number issued dire warnings about the appalling quality of one issue or another, so there is very much a buyer beware factor involved here. A handful didn't care for the film at all, almost always because thedialogueissofasttheycan'tkeepupwithit. That ... is ... a ... real ... shame, especially in this era of the fidgety edit, the sound bite and the five-second commercial.
  
  Many, altogether too many, praised director Howard Hawks to the skies for his brilliant story, his brilliant dialogue, his brilliant re-visioning, his brilliant this, his brilliant that. Now that requires a comment or two.
  
  In the Roaring Twenties, Chicago was the most raffish newspaper town in the world. Reporters who had seen it all--many, many times--covered Prohibition-era beer wars, gangsters several times bigger than life, crooked politicians, lurid scandals of every conceivable stripe, Red scares, repeated labor strife, mesmerizing mouthpieces who reduced juries to tears in order to save thrill killers from their justly deserved dates with public executioners, and any other mad things that turned up by land, sea or air. The pop culture of the day was fascinated by it all and two contemporary plays survive into our time to remind us of those hard-charging times: "Chicago" and "The Front Page." "Chicago," of course, was a hit play, that became a hit movie (and advanced the career of Ginger Rogers), that became a hit Broadway musical, that became a hit retro-movie musical.
  
  "The Front Page" was an even bigger hit on stage in its first go-around. It was written by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur who had served time in the news bullpen at the Chicago City Hall and had finally escaped to write for other venues that were no more respectable but paid a whole lot more money. Their subject was Hildy Johnson, a reporter on his last day in the bullpen before escaping into the real world and his boss Walter Burns, an amalgamation of every editor who'd ever run a beady eye over Hecht and MacArthur's deathless prose. I should point out that Hildy Johnson in the play is a man. The reason for that is ... well, because there actually was a Hildy (short for Hilding) Johnson who happened to be a bullpen reporter at the Chicago City Hall. Whatever inclination (if such a thing ever entered their minds at all) that Hecht and MacArthur had to make Hildy Johnson a woman would have promptly fallen by the wayside because the two authors were aware that the real Hildy Johnson would be in the theater on opening night to observe the antics of the fictional Hildy on stage. By all accounts, the real Hildy was a large and formidable Swede, not at all someone H&Mac wished to annoy.
  
  In very short order, the play was faithfully transferred to the movie screen with Pat O'Brien as Hildy and dapper Adolph Menjou as Walter Burns. That film is largely forgotten today, but is well worth watching. It was the first major film of the talkie era in which the old fluid movement of the silent film camera was re-attained. Menjou and O'Brien are both terrific.
  
  More than a decade later, a geologic era of Hollywood time, Howard Hawks set himself to the task of making a remake. He hired Charles Lederer, yet another raffish writer, to make a 1940-ish screenplay out of the 1928 play. He, or Lederer, or both simultaneously succumbed to the psycho-magnetic pull of that name, Hildy. They subjected Johnson to a gender transformation ... which changed the relationship between Burns and Johnson from Mephistopheles and Faust to lovers-separated ... which allowed for the importation of a new character as the temporary impediment to the course of true love ... which yielded a magnificent screenplay that maintained all the cynical energy of the original, but in the context of a romantic comedy.
  
  In the apportioning of credit, so far, I would put writer Lederer far ahead of director Hawks. Hawks racks up points for casting Cary Grant in the unaccustomed role of an authority figure, for casting Roz Russell who was perfectly capable of going toe-to-toe with Grant and always giving as good as she got, and for tossing in the wonderful, but still under-appreciated Ralph Bellamy as hilarious ballast to keep everything on course.
  
  Hawks did one more thing. He rehearsed each scene in long takes, again and again, until the rapid, overlapping rhythm of the words was ingrained in the performers. Then, and only then, did he shoot it.
  
  This film is a masterpiece for its screenplay, for its performers down to the smallest parts (a perfect, Big Studio-era repertory company of players), for Hawks' masterful direction. Sheesh, what more could you want? Of course it's worth five stars!
  
  
• D3K version stinks - do not rent or buy
  By A2XBPNMJ2OPC3G on 2002-02-21
  This is one of the most delightful and dizzy romantic comedies ever made. I've watched it on film, on tv, and on DVD. My single star rating refers to the butcher job done by D3K in their remaster. Probably the worst quality DVD I've *ever* rented. It had appalling muddy and hissy sound and looked as if it were filmed through vaseline. If you want a crisp clear DVD, stay away from the D3K version and find the Columbia Classics release.
  
  
• A Brilliant Comedy!
  By A2TV6SBCWT7P8S on 2002-07-07
  This is a priceless, brilliant comedy from 1940. Although several movies were made based on the hit play The Front Page, a sarcastic comedy about the newspaper business, none was as successful or is as hilarious as His Girl Friday.

  Made by expert director Howard Hawks, His Girl Friday is one of the most entertaining and hilarious films ever! The film was the first to use overlapping dialogue, and it is probably the fastest talking film in history! It can be watched again and again, because every time you find new things to laugh about that you missed the last time!

  The cast is fantastic as well. Cary Grant, especially, though usually very good, gives one of his best performances in His Girl Friday as the amoral and manipulative newpaper editor Walter Burns. He is spectacular! Every scene he is in is hilarious because of his funny expressions and clever way of saying his lines. He also contributes greatly to the film by several "in jokes", such as the Archie Leach line and the part in which he describes Ralph Bellamy's character as looking like "uhh..that fellow in the movies..you know, Ralph Bellamy."

  Rosalind Russell is excellent as well as Hildy Johnson, the star reporter who wants to quit, and she and Cary make a wonderfully spunky pair! Ralph Bellamy does a good job with his role as Hildy's fiancee, the bumbling insurance guy. The rest of the cast is just as good.

  Anyhow, this movie is a must have! Make sure to get a good copy of the DVD though - personally, I would recommend the His Girl Friday/Cary Grant on Film version because of its clarity.
  
  

• The Speedy Press.
  By A96K1ZGW56S2I on 2002-03-04
  HIS GIRL FRIDAY was directed by Howard Hawks and stars Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell. What more needs to be said? Back in the day, when you had a combination like that you knew a movie was going to be good (unlike today when an all-star cast doesn't guarantee anything).

  I have yet to see a film that Grant made that wasn't good and HIS GIRL FRIDAY is one of his finest performances. Instead of the bumbling buffoon that Grant usually plays, in HIS GIRL FRIDAY he plays Walter Burns, a fast-talking newspaper editor who writes for the people instead of the big business and political corporations that support it. Russell portrays Hildy, one of the best writers in the business and Burns' ex-wife. The verbal bombardment between the two is some of the best ever captured on film. Nevertheless, all that wit is spoken so naturally that it feels completely normal and ordinary.

  Howard Hawks was one of the best directors and made great films in all genres from Westerns to comedies to the fast-paced roller coaster that is HIS GIRL FRIDAY. Hawks made a lot of great films in his career, but HIS GIRL FRIDAY ranks as one of the top five Hawks films of all time.

  The movie is not only full of verbal intelligence, but it's full of action as well. Of course, the action here isn't the "let's-blow-up-another-building" action of the modern movie era. The action in HIS GIRL FRIDAY is, well, simply action: the stuff that makes for great drama. Nobody is still in HIS GIRL FRIDAY, everyone is moving in a motion that resembles real life. That makes HIS GIRL FRIDAY a film great for any day.
  
  

• That's what Archie Leach said before he cut his throat !
  By A3LPMI7GGRU83E on 2003-03-01
  Virtuoso performances by Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell highlight this screwball comedy masterpiece. Studio heads were appalled at the ad-libs they heard in the dailies "He looks like er...that fellow in the movies, Ralph Bellamy." They wondered if there was a madman in charge.

  (There was. His name was Howard Hawks)

  Adapted from the 1928 play and film "The Front Page", the madman realized that it would be much funnier if Hildy was female and, for good measure, about to leave not only the newspaper but also her dashing but um...slightly unethical ex-husband to marry a dullish Mama's boy (played to perfection by Bellamy) in order to finally lead a 'normal life.'

  Of course she's leaving on the 3 o'clock train so there's still time for Walter to concoct some insane scheme to stop Hildy from making a terrible mistake and win her back.

  Now if you're wondering how one can leave an EX-husband, or how hanging an innocent man to win an election, kidnapping old ladies, or framing a sweet simpleton for 'mashing' with the help of a blonde bombshell albino could possibly be funny

  "She ain't no Albino, she was born right here in this country!"

  Or if you simply want to roll on the floor laughing, watch this film.

  In an age where film schools tell their students to turn off the sound and only watch the images to judge if the director has done his job (In what? Ignoring the writer?), where words are considered 'barriers', wit a 'defense mechanism' and intelligence in cinema feared as a turn off to the 'demogragraphics' of modern audiences

  ---Watch this film!

  And leave the sound on. You won't want to miss a moment of Cary (born Archie Leach) Grant.
  
  

• BAD DVD, OVERRATED MOVIE
  By A2FL0EKQ2EQ9E6 on 2004-08-04
  For some reasons I have never been able to get into this film. I find it's madcap antics way too over the top for my taste. Roz Russell and Cary Grant are fine but I have found it impossible to follow the rapid-fire story. Perhaps if we were given a decent DVD transfer, fully restored, I would change my mind. The DVD is so bad its almost unwatchable. This may be the reason I have never been able to get into this movie because the film quality is so poor. This is a film in dire need of restoration because it cannot be fully appreciated. (Just a warning......any time you see a classic film in the bargain bin without the "Turner", "Warner", "UNIVERSAL" or "20th Century Fox" trademark, it is a generic DVD and the quality will be poor. A few others like this......"Penny Serenade, Meet John Doe, A Farewell to Arms"), etc.
  
  
• DVD sound and video was bad, but DK3 sent me a replacement
  By on 2000-03-23
  DVD quality is very, very, VERY, VERY poor! I'm not saying everyone should do this, but I bought the DK3 version of His Girl Friday from one of the other movie websites. When I got the DVD, I called DK3 (Their number is on the box) and told them about the poor quality. After a few minutes, the woman offered a replacement DVD. Then she offered me two replacements. They sent me Angel and the bad man and another film in their collection for free, plus I kept the movie. I think I'll keep it anonymous so they don't put me on a list. They might not do it again, but if you've already got it...
  
  
• Intelligent Comedy
  By A2ITPZOXVR7X6T on 2000-06-10
  I don't know what the other reviewers are talking about concerning this movie. This is a masterpiece of comedy and acting, way ahead of it's time. The copy of this movie that I have seen on various TV stations is terrible, however this is a Laserlight production DVD and the quality is excellent. I think there is another version of this DVD by another company which maybe what the other reviewers are talking about, I don't know. A very sophisticated comedy, the dialogue between the actors is done the way real people talk to one another, which is Howard Hawks' style. The characters are very colorful. The story is basically about how a newspaper run by Cary Grant is trying to stop the execution of a disturbed communist who murdered a black police officer, this in 1940. They point out how the black vote is very important to the politicians, all of whom are heels. The portrayal of politics was very unique to Hollywood films of the time. Also Grant is trying to persuade Rosalind Russell to do the story instead of running off to Albany to marry that guy "who looks like Ralph Bellamy". Anyway if you know this film I reccommend it highly. Laserlight does a very good job transferring this film to DVD, the TV versions are terrible. I bought this film because I have bad VHS versions of it taped from TV and figured for $7.99 it could only be better. I was surprised because I never saw such an excellent copy of this movie. It is well worth it, I have other Laserlight movies and they so far have been great transfers to DVD of old classic films. When watching this movie listen carefully because of some of the underbreath remarks made by some of the characters, hilarious.
  
  

• Charade
• My Man Godfrey
• Penny Serenade
• The Snows of Kilimanjaro
• House on Haunted Hill